THE EU; REASONS FOR LEAVING PART 1

There are many examples of where the self-serving EU rips off the British taxpayer. Probably none more obvious than with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy, (CFP).
Many farmers argue that without EU subsidies they would not survive. They choose to ignore the fact that the subsidies which they receive from the EU are from the taxes paid to ensure that the EU receives its £33,000,000 net per day from the UK. This, after factoring in the rebate, CAP subsidies etc. Coming out of the EU means that farmers would be able to use the full potential of their land instead of being paid to deliberately leave acres of land fallow. Not only that but they would not need to grow bio fuels to keep the Green lobby happy as is happening now.
Would it not be better to grow enough food for the domestic market whilst being free to sell the surplus to foreign markets? UKIP argues that as we buy more from the EU than they buy from us, leaving the EU and the CAP will not change the links we already have in place.
The argument that supermarkets would kill off competition is weak. By removing the unfair system of subsidies to farmers they (farmers) would once again have the upper hand and supermarkets would have to pay the going rate or shop abroad. Produce in quantity and the price will come down plus, farmers will have the incentive of a modified single payment scheme which would be capped at a certain level.
It is a fact that since Gordon Brown signed off on the Treaty of Lisbon our politicians have no power in key policy areas such as agriculture and fisheries. As Stuart Agnew, UKIP’s agriculture spokesman, says and I quote: “Post-Lisbon (if not before), as Owen Patterson discovered over the horse meat scandal – rather I think to his horror – DEFRA is reduced to little more than the EU’s compliance Agency in London!”
As with most business conducted by the EU, British agriculture is run, more or less, by one unelected official in Brussels.

The Common Fisheries Policy is even worse for Britain. The implementation of this grossly unfair Policy has decimated the British fishing industry. In essence, it has allowed foreign vessels – mainly French and Spanish, to plunder British fishing grounds.
Successive governments have told the British public that no matter what rules and regulations come out of Brussels and Strasbourg, British sovereignty will remain intact. To debunk that piece of utter claptrap, let me take you back to 1991 when the Tory government tried to make it impossible for foreign companies and ship owners to exploit the UK quotas for fishing. Foreign ships were being registered in the UK as a means of stealing some of the UK quotas and the Tories tried to put a stop to this by making it Law that ship and company owners must be residents of the UK and/or British nationals before registration could be granted. This was over ruled by the European Court of Justice, which stated that the UK could not lawfully demand these conditions. Proof, if proof were needed, that the ECJ wields more power than a member States parliament.

Not a lot is mentioned in the MSM about the plight of our fishing industry or the poverty and skills loss which the CFP has caused. The total hypocrisy of the system and of those who administer it is something to believe.
Take for example the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance, (FIFG). Supposedly a guideline for countries who received grants from the FIFG to reduce their fishing fleets and preserve fish stocks in EU waters. France and Spain used the FIFG to expand and modernise their fleets. Spain now has the third largest fishing fleet in the world. The UK, Italy and most other members states used the aid from the CFP as it was intended and reduced their fleets.
Because of the 1992 ECJ ruling, the UK was forced by the EU to drastically reduce the size of its fishing fleet, the result being that by 1996 the fleet had been reduced by 60%. This leaves the seas around the UK open to plunder from Spanish and French fishing vessels. It matters not to the owners of these ships that they abuse the quota system and receive massive fines for doing so because the subsidies which they receive through the CFP far outweigh any fines imposed.
As most of the EU fishing grounds are within Britain’s Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nautical miles it is a real slap in the face to this country to be told that we cannot fish those waters. Because of the way that quota licenses are issued, one Dutch ship – for example- is allowed to net a quarter of England’s fishing quota and take it to ports in Holland.
This simply cannot go on! Honest British fishermen have been forced out of work by greedy bureaucrats in Brussels who have no knowledge of the sea, let alone fishing. We must leave the EU now and reverse this travesty before a whole industry is lost and forgotten.
Put simply, we are an island nation with fish in abundance on our doorstep and yet we import more fish than we sell!